Paladin talents
Starting at level 10, a Paladin can begin spending talent points to gain new abilities and spells, strengthen existing abilities, and specialize how he/she functions. See the entry on Talents for more information about the Talent system. Paladin Talents have undergone significant changes with the 1.9 patch. As of patch 2.1.0 some of these talents have changed, eg. Improved Sanctity Aura and need to be updated. * Talents calculator at the Official Site * Paladin Talent Calculator at WorldofWar.se Paladin talent trees Paladins train in three schools: Holy, Protection, and Retribution. Which talent trees the Paladin spends points in determines the Paladin's role in parties and raids. Mainly Holy Paladins will be expected to be main healers. Mainly Protection Paladins are going to be at least off-tanks. Mainly Retribution Paladins are more PvP oriented. The noticeable thing about Paladin talent trees is that none of the 31 point talents are as potent as many other classes 31 point talents. This reinforces that Paladins are meant to become talent hybrids, spending points in different schools. Example: Holy Shock is a very useful healing tool in a tight spot (especially combined with Divine Favor), but could also be used offensively to gain aggro, especially with Righteous Fury active. Retribution is not a tree geared to PvE encounters, pure Retribution Paladins are more at home in PvP. Retribution talents can be used to enhance damage output for either tanking or healing paladins if desired. Holy The Holy tree contains talents focused on healing and caster-related buffs. Common raid oriented Holy builds will invest at least 20 points into the tree. A typical 20 talent point investment should include Divine Intellect(5/5), Spiritual Focus(5/5), Healing Light(3/3), Imp Lay on Hands(2/2) and Illumination(5/5) And for the 21 point talent selection, Divine Favor. Raiding holy paladins will want to invest at least 20 points into the holy tree. Pick up Divine Favor along with Sanctified Light and Holy Power(5/5) as synergy talents that will benefit Illumination to a much greater extent. At this point, the investment of 1 talent point in Holy Shock is simply a luxury and not really needed for a quality Holy talent build, although it does make 5-man tanking a lot simpler when you can make all the pulls. Protection The Protection tree contains talents focused on defense, damage mitigation, damage return and one-handed weapons. The Paladin protection tree was a bit of a lame horse, but has received a much needed boost in performance with the recent patch 2.0.1. While the talent tree itself has not been changed much, the new spot ability combined with Consecration now being a skill instead of a talent now makes it possible for a Paladin to be a good tank if specialized in the protection tree in at least the 5 man instances like Stratholme or Scholomance and (depending on your equipment) maybe even in raid instances. A typical raiding paladin who selects talents in protection will invest 11 talent points in the protection tree, selecting Imp Devotion Aura(5/5, the new addition giving you much needed armor to tank against enemies and allowing you to have to heal a bit less), Guardian's Favor (2/2), Precision (3/3 the less you miss your target when refreshing JoL/JoW the faster you can get back to healing), and finally Blessing of Kings(1/1) since an extra 10% to everyone's stats takes the edge off of new encounters and speeds up Raid progression. While Blessing of Sanctuary, the most underrated Paladin buff of all, can be a very useful spell in raid situations, it requires to sacrifice many other useful talents, that might be a lot better if you go for the usual buff'n'heal combination. A potent tanking raiding paladin would normally invest at least all 59 of talent points in the protection tree, giving at least enough for a 10-point talent in Holy or Retribution. The great thing is the diversity of the Protection tree, so pick anything that suits your playing style. The only thing I would ask is to try putting talents on Devotion Aura, Redoubt, and Sacred Duty so your most potent aura is powered up and you block more attacks. You can also proc Blessing of Sanctuary with Redoubt more often. Sacred Duty is incredible for any scenario. Even if you normally won't attack while bubbled, you also get a reduced cooldown! So try combos that work for different situations. The rest of the protection tree is only usable if you plan to PvP or to tank a lot. With points spent in Redoubt, Toughness, Blessing of Sanctuary and Holy Shield you can kill most melee fighters without breaking a sweat, while Toughness, Anticipation and Reckoning combined with enough points in Retribution for Seal of Command will allow you to be a good tank in most instances. Also, try using Exorcism and Holy Wrath to do incredible aggro especially on undead enemies (be wary, for these skills burn up your mana). The protection tree is not as designed as the warrior's against enemy spellcasters, since your damage output comes from blocking and being hit by melee damage, and your improved armor and defense will not lower spell damage at all. With Reckoning however, at close proximity to casters, higher damage output may be dealt. Improved Hammer of Justice is excellent if they're trying to cast, so not only do you interrupt them, but you can also get in heals more frequently. Also, with Sacred Duty, you can use Divine Shield while still pummeling spellcasters without slowing or stunning effecting you, and like before, more time for healing as well. Ardent Defender is a good choice if you've spent many points in Protection. The half-dmg will go a long way versus any opponent. Once combined with a seal and judge of wisdom (while using the mana gained for Flashes of Light and Hammer of Justice, many people think JoL, but your risking if it procs or not), the paladin becomes unstoppable. Damage is halved, but healing from SoL and JoL is the same. Avenger's Shield is also a much needed addition to paladins. It has awesome chain-reacting power that can also slow enemies. It's also an incredible aggro builder. Since it chains and hits up to 3 people, you can pull a group out without much trouble from others, and also do some good starting damage. Retribution The Retribution tree contains talents focused on damage output, two-handed weapons, holy damage, and damage avoidance. For paladins interested in melee combat, a core investment of 16 points will be needed. Benediction (5/5 it is difficult to acquire melee gear with lots of AP/Crit and Int, so the 15% reduction in cost to the Seal/Judgement system will increase your damage much more than Imp Blessing of Might), Imp Judgement (2/2), Deflection (3/5), Seal of Command(1/1), and Conviction (5/5). For those interested in being a hardcore melee paladins, 30 points can be invested in the tree. Hardcore melee paladins will have to decide whether or not to invest their last talent point in retribution for Repentance (ranged paladin stun) or Divine Favor in the holy tree for a free crit heal. Building off of the 16 core retribution talents, PvP/melee paladins may want to invest in a Five point combination of Pursuit of Justice(X/2 if you have an epic mount you will move at 204/208% of normal speed instead of 200% as the talent wording might lead you to believe, but mostly used for normal mounts until lvl 62 as Crusader Aura doesn't stack along with PoJ) - note this talent doesn't stack with run speed & riding skill enchants, Carrot on a Stick or Mithril Spurs; Eye for an Eye(X/2), Vindication (X/3 alright in PvP, but mostly almost all bosses in raid instances are immune), or the last two points of Deflection. Then, Two-handed weapon specialization(3/3), Sanctity Aura(1/1), and Vengeance(5/5 a synergy talent of Conviction) to bring you up to 30. See also * [http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=s Paladin Talent Calculator at Wowhead] * Paladin Talent Calculator at Official site * Paladin Talent Calculator at Thottbot.com * Paladin Talent Calculator at Panda Hideout * Paladin Talent Calculator at merciless-gilde.com * Retnoob Category:Paladins Category:Paladin Talents Category:Talents